Like an entrance to the heavens
by MedusaOfTheSpecies
Summary: It always goes like this: there are two kids, they meet, and they change each other's lives. :: Drastoria, a collection.
1. Future like magic

**Written for:**

Romace Awareness Challenge: soulmate's name on your wrist with the prompt 'rare.'

Song Lyrics Challenge: "Although my heart is falling too."

Gobstones Club: New Adulthood, comply, tightly, twinkling.

FRIENDS Competition: TOW The Bullies- write about Draco Malfoy

Once Upon A Time Character Challenge: Snow White- write about true love.

 **x.X.x**

When Draco is merely two years old, his soulmate's name appears on his wrist, a elegant scribble reading, 'Astoria Levana Greengrass.'

Narcissa Malfoy nee Black is overjoyed to see it. Astoria Greengrass is a member of the sacred 28, the only group of people she would want her son to associate with and it is so rare for him to have actually be bonded to a girl who will increase his social status.

"My son is going to have a lovely future," Narcissa tells Lucius and he smiles indulgently, his eyes forever fond.

Sadly, things are rarely this simple.

 **x.X.x**

"You better be fucking kidding me, you giant git," Astoria Greengrass screamed, her wand jabbing into Draco Malfoy's left shoulder.

The boy in question flinched. "What do you want from me, Ria? I didn't do anything."

Astoria Greengrass crossed her arms, raising a dark eyebrow, and Draco flushed. "Really? You didn't do anything? Not even get the Dark mark a week before we were supposed to do our soulmate bonding ceremony?"

Draco rolled his eyes. "Relax, Ria. Everyone knows the Dark Lord is going to win anyways, you should be honoured that he bestowed this mark on our family."

Instead of agreeing, Astoria's face fell. She slumped down against the wall, looking more defeated and tired than Draco had ever seen her.

His whole life, Astoria had been in motion: grinning at him brightly as they compared their names on each other's wrists, eyes twinkling as she tossed an arm over him in photos, slipping out of dances to climb trees with him disapprovingly watching. She was his best friend, his partner in crime, his soulmate, but now she just looked crushed.

"What is it really?" Draco asked softly, sitting down beside Astoria. She leaned her head against him absentmindedly, curling their fingers together.

"I don't believe in the Dark Lord's cause," Astoria said finally, her hands gripping his tightly, as if she could force him to stay. "He wants to kill so many people, Draco, and I…. I can't deal with that. I'm sorry."

Draco felt like he couldn't breathe. His whole life has revolved around the Dark Lord: getting marked and complying blindly, marrying pure, hating anyone with blood not pure.

But Astoria had always been the smarter one, even as she bled from climbing too high and falling down from trees. From the day he had been old enough to read the name on his wrist, Draco had vowed to make her proud.

"Okay," Draco said and the word felt odd to his ears. The world spun softly but he held on, crushing her hand against his. "Okay."

"Okay?" Astoria questioned, her tone startled and hopeful. "But you believe in it."

Draco closed his eyes. One deep breath. A second one. His breathing was ragged but Astoria felt so soft against his shoulder. "I believe in you more."

Astoria's lips pressed against his suddenly and Draco pulled her onto his lap. There could be people coming in any moment, he could be killed for treason if a single soul had overheard the conversation but-

Astoria Greengrass was worth it.

 **x.X.x**

"What's the point of a soulmate?" Scorpius complained, scratching the place on his wrist where a name could appear at any moment.

Draco smiled. Once upon a time, he had been that small and curious, tugging at his father's patience.

"They make you better," Draco said quietly, looking over at the kitchen where Astoria hummed absentmindedly, her hand cracked from where she had gotten into a scuffle, dropped her wand, but punched hard anyways. "They help you become the best person you could possibly be."

"Will I love my soulmate?" Scorpius asked interestedly.

Draco closed his eyes. Astoria was humming their wedding song, eyes cheerful and mouth smiling. At sixteen, she had pulled him out of hell and she had never looked back. "Yes, you will."


	2. Banished lovers

**Written for:**

Romance Awareness, Day 29: Soulmates in a world where the concept is so rare, they'd be banished/shunned/experimented on.

Prompt: Iris - Goo Goo Dolls

 **x.X.x**

The day Draco gets the soul mark, he dies inside, the spoiled, smug boy inside ruined forever with the knowledge that it'll never be easy for him again.

There will be no legacy and no balls, no presents and sunlit days with his mother and father. The government will take him and experiment on him until he bleeds.

He will never be normal again.

 **x.X.x**

"Draco," Astoria whispers. "You have a dragon and a warrior princess as your soul mark, don't you?"

Draco goes still. He doesn't answer out loud but his silence is enough.

 **x.X.x**

Draco Malfoy has loved Astoria Greengrass since he was six years old and she fell dramatically on the couch beside him, complaining she was bored and tired and wanted to go home.

In a perfect world, this news would be the happiest day of his life, his other half wearing half his mark.

But this is not a perfect world at all but a vicious one, with dark corners being deadly and experimenting on people and their soulmates, and a culture that is completely and utterly against them.

Draco wishes, above all, that he had never met Astoria. Perhaps that way, they'd both be safe.

( _Wistful thinking, isn't it?)_

 **x.X.x**

"My dragon," Narcissa breathes, her eyes drawn to the silhouette of a soul mark on Draco's back, reflecting in the moonlight shining through the open window.

Her son is not safe, will never be, but she is a mother first and that does not change. She will lose him, disguise him, hide him, let him be safe. She will do anything it takes to save her son and his girl, that Astoria.

And who else could it be but Astoria, the girl Draco looks at like she put all the stars in the sky? They are seventeen and fifteen now, not longer four and six, but the reverence in his eyes doesn't fade and Narcissa feels a sharp pang of longing for that kind of love too.

( _But if she is lucky, at least her son will be able to experience it.)_

 **x.X.x**

The stories are common knowledge, about men in white who steal your soulmate and your soul, who pierce your skin with needles until you bleed, who make soul-mated people run away to safer shores.

Astoria knows it all. For Draco, it'd be worth it. She'd cross the world to be in his arms.

 **x.X.x**

The day Narcissa Malfoy nee Black appears in Greengrass Manor, nervous and frenetic, is the day they run.

"Don't let them catch you," Narcissa says, pressing two shrunken trunks into their arms. "I love you two."

She presses two kisses on their foreheads, and Astoria thinks Draco looks the way she feels, like a pent up ball of emotions is about to explode in her chest.

"I love you, mother." Draco kisses his mother's cheek. "Don't worry about me."

Narcissa looks worried and Astoria wishes for the day where her tenseness will ebb away. She has never wanted this, to cause her soulmates mother this kind of early grief.

Still, Draco takes her hand and Astoria gets it. They have to run if they want to live.

"Let's go," Draco says, grief reflected on his normally so proud face.

"I love you," Astoria says.

They disappear into the night. If he says it back, it is lost in history but it doesn't matter. They are soulmates, kids fated together through all of time and space.

It's only three worlds. They share each other's souls and that means much, much more.


End file.
